Communication among public safety personnel, such as firemen, is an important aspect of safely fighting fires. In large buildings, firefights are often required to attack fires from multiple directions in order to prevent the fire from spreading. In such cases, different teams of firefighters are often assigned to attack the fire from the different directions. Often the efforts of the teams to fight the fire are made more difficult by smoke that obscures the flames or avenues for accessing a fire.
In addition to fighting the actual fire, firefighters may encounter situations where the buildings occupants are still present within the building. In such cases, occupants may feel trapped by the smoke or flames or from fear of becoming lost within a smoke-filled building.
Where occupants are present, firefighters are often required to search for and lead occupants to safety before they can begin to fight the fire. In large structures, the very size of the structures may require that individual firefights fan out within the structure to search for occupants or victims of the fire.
In some cases, a great deal of time may be lost searching for occupants. Where the structure or number of occupants is large, a great deal of time may be spent looking for occupants while the fire continues to spread. Alternatively, a fire may not be discovered and firefighters may not be notified until the fire is well developed.
In either case, the search for occupants may be curtailed by the possibility that parts of the structure may be unstable and subject to collapse. Because of such risks, firefighters may only have a very limited time to search for occupants. Because of the danger to firefighters, better methods are needed to monitor firefighters.